Dottie's odyssey through United States of...

9 September 2015

10:58
Texas produces energy.

8 September 2015

19:01
Spent last night at our new favorite camp ground in the TX Panhandle. The Rita Blanca National Grass Land is a free campground. It's quiet and has lots of birds. As darkness closed in we observed an owl flying about looking for a meal.
In this post you will see the long, and not so winding road, the crops of the panhandle (corn & maize) and a farmer preparing the land for planting the winter wheat crop.
We will be home tonight. Not looking forward to the heat and humidity.

08:24
This morning a deer visited our camp site and licked our bar-B-Q grill until I tried opening the RV door to toss her an apple. It's probably a good thing she ran away because a ranger appeared shortly to update our reservation post.
We hiked about 3 miles before departing the park. Tonight we will plan to camp at our private camp ground at the Rita Blanca National Grassland just inside the border of Texas.
The remaining images on this post were taken on our morning hike.

7 September 2015

19:07
We are on our way home, and stopped at The Great Sand Dunes National Park. This has become one of our favorite places to spend 1 or 2 nights.

6 September 2015

14:29
Road the mineral belt again by myself, stopped to read many of the historic signs and snapping images with my iPhone. Leadville was a booming mining town in the 1800's. The mineral belt passes through the historic mining district with piles of tailings, remnants of the Baby Doe mine and views of Leadville and Turquoise Lake where we camped.

4 September 2015

12:25
Back in Leadville inching our way home. We walked a couple of miles on the paved mineral belt and found the log home and a two-hole out house. We are back in our campsite #4 at Baby Doe camp ground.

12:17
Found the 3 phases of this wildflower. The flower phase, the seed pod phase and the seed head phase. The seed phase appears to look like a dandelion seed head but it is much taller and larger.

1 September 2015

11:24
Here are scenes from Rocky Mountain National Park. Some are from our camp site and others from our hike to Mills Lake. We took a wrong turn at one of the trailhead and ended up hiking almost 7 miles up and down mountains, over rocks and boulders at over 11,000 feet.

28 August 2015

15:49
We finally were able to get into Pawnee Camp Ground. The photos in this section were all taken on our five mile hike to Blue Lake, which is an alpine lake left over from the ice age. The surrounding landscape is extremely rocky as a result from the moraine left over from glaciers during the ice age. Some of the rocks are as big as houses and large cars.

22 August 2015

16:41
We heard about a lovely camp ground east of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) named Pawnee Camp Ground. While waiting to obtain a campsite, we elected to camp 3 days at Rainbow lake, a short distance away. It was a quiet camp ground, but involved a 5 mile drive on rocky, bumpy roads. It felt like 25 miles.
I've included images of Ken and me having fun on one hike, a photo of our friend sitting in our screened tent, alpine lakes that we hiked to. Try to find the fly fisherman fishing at one of the lakes. I also edited an image that I call "Spooky Forest" and included a photo of Ken fishing in a cold mountain stream four feet wide.

18 August 2015

16:31
Our next stop after Leadville was to Aspen's Difficult Camp Ground. Some highlights of the trip was driving over Independence Pass, hiking alongside of the Roaring Fork River, enjoying wild flowers on the trail, cheering for the cycling pros as they fought for victory in a four day cycling race, and touring the pristine town of Aspen with an almost magical setting of flowers blooming everywhere. Oops!! I forgot to photograph the flowers in Aspen.

15 August 2015

17:26
Playing Catch up!
We've had quite a gap sharing our trip with you because our cell phone coverage has been weak or not available at all.
Victory!! Mike and his business partner and friend Bjorn finished the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike race in well under the 12 hours deadline. The race consists of 100 miles, mostly off road, covering elevations of 10,200 ft. To 12,550 ft.

12 August 2015

16:46
Just wild flowers.

16:46
Wild flowers above the tree line.

15:57
We had a lovely, and at times hold-tight Jeep ride to the top of Columbine. The top of the mountain is the turn around point for the Leadville 100 mile mountain bike race. The top of the mountain is above the tree line and there were wild flowers everywhere. I've loaded 10 photos on this post so make sure you touch to open the first photo, and then swipe to see all images. I will post more pictures on the next entry.

11 August 2015

12:33
Today I photographed flowers, the evening sky and a grass transformed into a kaleidoscope image with my iPhone. I used Apple's photo editing software Pixelmator.

10 August 2015

19:02
SENIORS AND S'MORES
The title says it all. Our friends, Larry & Marylin from Springfield MO have been traveling in their Roadtrek when we met them in CO this year. Previously we met them on a Roadtrek outing in Alaska in 2011.

7 August 2015

I took a ride on my mountain bike on the trail that We hike on. Considering I'm a newbie at mountain biking, I did fairly well. However after riding for sometime the trail became extremely rocky and steep. I am a brave girl but I'm not stupid. I decided most of this trail was too technical for me, and I returned to our campsite. I am improving my mountain bike skills, but I did not want to become discouraged. I'm going to find an easier trail to tackle. I had one fall but came home in one piece.
15:10

12:11
Here's an image of Papa whittling a fire stick. Connor made the knife for Papa by hand. Papa is real proud of it!

6 August 2015

12:04
A handy boulder to lean on for a sip of cool water. I failed to mention that Leadville CO is 10,200 ft. above sea level. The Mineral belt, at its highest, rises another 400 ft. Above Leadville for a fine view of the city.

5 August 2015

Yesterday a group of us road the Mineral Belt Trail (MBT) on our mountain bikes. The MBT is a wide blacktop road for walkers, runners and bikers. No motorized vehicles allowed. The trail is 11.6 miles and circles the town of Leadville with views six hundred feet above the city.
The first half of the trail is a gradual climb with the last half being all downhill. Mike videoed me with his GoPro as we descended the mountain. I'm looking forward to seeing that. Such fun!
21:22

18:18
The latest fashion!!! Guess who? Lol

12:17
Not too many new subject at this lovely camp on CO. Here we are on another hike. We hiked 5 miles today and we're a little tired but after a short rest and food we felt great.

11:50
Mountains, snow and sun bathing is the theme this afternoon. It's fun watching the newbies as they try to learn how to paddle board standing up in Turquoise Lake. Most of them fall into the cold water and give up.

4 August 2015

3 August 2015

2 August 2015

12:32
Lunch from leftovers. I named the new creation, "Beans, Bison and Rice" The Olatha corn was steamed fresh. It was really good!

31 July 2015

15:21
Our favorite hiking trail along the lake. This is a favorite trail with the mountain bikers.

13:04
We have a very large campsite. Probably an acre and a half on the lake. There are trees blocking a complete view of the lake, but the trees also block the wind.

13:04
Another view of our campground.

29 July 2015

14:55
The piled stones are called a rock carne. They can be used to mark a trail, but in this instance we are marking the one mile point of our hike from our RV.

28 July 2015

20:24
Another sunset view.

20:23
View of Turquoise Lake at sunset.

11:53
Here we are on the shores of Lake Turquoise, Baby Doe National Forest campground near Leadville CO. Added to the blue sky and turquoise water is a sandy beach.

26 July 2015

07:13
After a good nights rest we prepared to leave our private campground. The sky was blue and clear after a night of distance lightning and some rain.

25 July 2015

20:10
We found this lovely free campsite on the drive to Colorado. We were the only campers overnighting at this lovely site.

18:22
Heading down the road to Leadville CO and cool temperatures at 10,200 ft. altitude.
Note:
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